


Menace

by yeaka



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-28
Updated: 2015-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-06 16:11:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4228362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeaka/pseuds/yeaka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Giant bees are scary to some dwarves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Menace

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Fill for anon’s “One of the dwarves is afraid of bees and Beorn's giant bees terrify him, much to everyone's surprise( i want it to be someone normally dignified like Nori or Balin)” prompt on [the Hobbit Kink Meme](http://hobbit-kink.livejournal.com/10731.html?thread=21950443#t21950443). (For the record, I’m down with bees, but this is from Balin’s POV)
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own The Hobbit or any of its contents, and I’m not making any money off this.

He tries to be calm, of course. He understands that they’ve dealt with so much worse than _bees_ on this trip, and if he could hold his cool in the midst of a goblin town, surely he can with mere insects, even if they are unusually large, almost as much so as his fist. He’s not exactly sure _what_ he’s afraid of—their sting would hurt, surely, far worse than any regular bee, but he’d survive. Yet when he looks at them, a cold shiver runs down his spine, and sheer _terror_ closes in on him. His ears start to ring and his vision gets blurry around the edges, and he feels the overwhelming urge to turn around and _run_.

He sucks in a deep breath and keeps his eyes fixed on Dwalin’s back. He tries to ignore his peripherals and the sound of their wild buzzing on either side. They’ve got a long walk ahead, but they walked into trolls and through goblins and past wargs and _he can do this_.

Then he hears the incessant whirring getting closer, and he breaks his resolve to glance sideways, his eyes going as big as his nose. There’s one coming _right at him_ , and Balin doesn’t need to get a look at its beady little eyes for the panic to seize him. He lets out a terrible squeal that no Dwarven warrior should ever make, and he turns around to try and bolt, but he only gets a few steps around Nori and barrels right into Dori, who goes down with him in a tangle of limbs and cries. Balin can’t think straight. The bees are still coming, they’re everywhere, and he rolls off Dori as fast as he can and tries to curl up on the ground, covering the back of his exposed head with his hands and hoping none get tangled in his beard—what a nightmare—and he can hear the others falling into disarray around him but can’t care at the moment. He’ll mourn his fallen dignity later. 

He hears the swish of a sword flying out, and when he looks up, Dori’s swinging at the air with indiscriminate ferocity. The bee keeps whizzing just out of his reach, and Balin crawls pathetically behind him. Finally, Gandalf booms, “Put that sword away, master dwarf, or you will have our host chasing us far out of his fields!” Dori tenses, his blade stilling, but it takes him a moment to put it away.

Fortunately, the bee seems to have learned its lesson, and it flutters back to its friends, hopefully to warn them of Dwarven wrath.

While the rest of the company moves on, Dori bends to help Balin up. Blushing furiously, Balin offers a sheepish, “Sorry.” He feels immensely foolish, having never shied away from even a dragon. Of course, dragons can at least talk, and so one knows their intentions, whereas there’s no telling what goes on in the evil hive-minds of bees.

Dori smiles comfortingly and says, “It’s alright,” which he probably thinks it is, though Nori and Fíli and Kíli will probably have a good laugh out of this. “We all have our demons.” Most just aren’t so embarrassing. 

By the time Balin’s brushed himself off, they’re falling behind even Bombur. But they catch up quick enough, Balin clinging tight to Dori’s side, just in case.


End file.
